Saving the Rare Red-Legged Frog

Thousands of young California red-legged frog tadpoles now have better odds for making it to metamorphosis and adult life in a marshy new home along the Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir. While still in the egg stage, they were relocated from the Lower Crystal Springs Dam construction site by wildlife biologists in preparation for work to raise the dam’s parapet wall.

A concrete pit atop the dam filled with rainwater created a hospitable habitat for the rare and federally protected amphibian. By March 2011, the pond had seven egg masses attached to floating plant stems, and five adult frogs. The team also saved approximately 200 Pacific tree frogs and 100 rough-skinned newts from shallow ponds on the Lower Crystal Springs Dam construction site.

Red-Legged Frog relocated from construction site in spring 2011.